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Sumit SinghalSumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.

Wangjing Soho in Beijing, China by Zaha Hadid Architects

Office and retail complex, beacon midway between city and airport, a welcome and farewell to Beijing – Wangjing Soho is all these things. Conceived as two masses – ‘Chinese fans’ that circle and embrace each other in an intricate dance – Wangjing Soho establishes a vibrant, dynamic presence on the Beijing skyline.

Wangjing Soho office and retail complex stands as a beacon midway between city and airport – acting as both a welcome to and farewell from Beijing. Conceived as ‘Chinese fans’, the two volumes of Wangjing Soho appear to move around each other, to dance, to embrace as they are circumnavigated – their vibrancy further enhanced by a shimmering outer skin.

Rendering 04

The whole comprises a major and minor volume, intertwined to form a unified design. Each volume houses office space, with connections between and to the surrounding landscape provided via a retail podium. This ‘duality’ of expression both loosens building mass within defined site boundaries and supports a two-phase completion process.

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Both volumes describe a slender, curved form in plan and elevation, further enhancing the sensation of embrace and generating an extraordinary range of views to Beijing.

Interior spaces are suitable for flexible use and well served in terms of vertical transportation through sequences of cores. The connecting retail atrium comprises three levels containing retail outlets, restaurants and cafes – their configuration forming a unifying ‘pedestrian street’.

The entire complex sits above a raft foundation system housing parking on three basement levels.